Container Candle Craze

I walked to the grocery store and bought 12 mason jars to make container candles.

They only cost eight dollars and I like the fact that they have lids so you can put them back on when you’re not using them. That way the scent doesn’t leech out faster than you would like.

They’re one of the easiest candles to make especially when your wicks are pretabbed wicks and you have these wick stickums to hold them down. They’re two sided round stickers that stick to the tabs so they don’t fly all over the place.

I made vanilla and jasmine scented container candles. To color the vanilla I added about a quarter of a brown dye chip to a pound of soy wax and for the jasmine, I added half a red once they heated up to 200 degrees Fahrenheit.

For the scent, I used solid concentrated scent from Yardley. It says to add an eighth or more so I used a third, since I’m sick of having weak scented candles. We will see how that goes.

I used a little over two pounds of wax and that ended up making three container candles. Since I only had a bit of vanilla and jasmine scented wax left over I made a layered candle with the last one and I think it turned out pretty. This time I was patient and waited for the first layer to completely cool.

I have nine more jars to go and I was going to make some with lavender essential oil but since it’s one in the morning here, I think I will leave them for another day.

Generally I like knitting patterns where I feel like you can use whatever yarn you have (because my stash is big enough and I want to use it, thanks) and make a successful project. This is one of those times when a special yarn makes the process that much easier.

The Floral Bouquet Shawl from Xandy Peters uses a specific extended color pooling yarn from Feisty Fibers, which allows you to place the bobble flowers with increasing frequency as you knit the project.

It starts with a solid color yarn, then the two color yarn is added in, and you make a bobble whenever you encounter the color pops. This would be hard to replicate with other yarn that doesn’t have the extended color pooling built in.

The background of the shawl is ribbed, making the project reversible.

The shawl uses fingering/sock yarn and comes out to be an asymmetrical triangle that’s 54 inches/137 cm long and 36 inches/ 90 cm deep and 60 inches/150 cm across the top edge.

Xandy says the pattern is for intermediate to advanced knitters. Knowing how to work traditional bobbles would probably help, but there’s a great video tutorial for how to work the floral bobbles so you can practice on other yarn or even incorporate the bobbles into other projects.

The bobbles are five-petaled flowers but they also kind of look like starfish to me, which could be fun on a child’s cardigan or other pattern. They’d also be fun on the leg of a sock or around the brim of a hat for extra whimsy.

The pattern includes photo and video tutorials, and written and charted instructions. It also includes tips on what to look for if you choose to use different yarn for the project, and instructions on how to dye your own yarn to use in the project.

If you want to give it a try, you can find the pattern on Ravelry.

[Photo: Xandy Peters]

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